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Encyclopedia entry: alcoholism
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to the Body
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Companion to the Body 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information)
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alcoholism
The term ‘alcoholism’ was first used by a Swedish professor of medicine, Magnus Huss (1807–90), to mean poisoning by alcohol. Huss distinguished between two types of alcoholism.
Acute alcoholism
was a result of the temporary effects of alcohol taken within a short period of time — drunkenness and intoxication;
chronic alcoholism
was a pathological condition caused by the habitual use of alcoholic beverages in poisonous amounts over a long period of time. Using case studies to illustrate the condition of chronic alcoholism, Huss provided the first systematic description of the physical damage caused by excessive drinking. This first use of the term ...